This Sunday, March 5, Guadeloupe heard the sad news of the death of Sylviane Telchid at the age of 81. Born on September 17, 1941 in Capesterre Belle-Eau, in a family of twelve children, this teacher and writer has fought her entire life for the Creole language to be spoken without complex, written and respected.
His fight began at the age of 35 (1976) when Creole was banned in schools when Hector Poulet (mathematics teacher) asked her to help him to teach in Creole. In 1983, when the archipelago was shaken by a “wave of independence”, Creole officially entered the Capesterre Belle-Eau secondary school, which divided the educational community ; some very reluctant parents wonder what their children will be able to do later with these creole classes…
The following year, the first Creole-French dictionary was published. Then, several writings, signed Sylviane Telchid and Hector Poullet or Sylviane Telchid alone, will follow as dictionaries, texts for the teaching of the language in schools, translations of French works in Creole, adaptations into Creole of French and foreign literature works for theatre. Twenty years ago (2003), Sylviane Telchid, who retired from the Éducation Nationale, decided to translate the Bible into Creole.
In her lifetime, this Creole specialist was honoured by the Lycée Gerville-Réache in Basse-Terre, in 2008, where the Regional languages and cultures room bears her name, and by her native town, Capesterre Belle-Eau, in 2014, where a secondary school also bears her name.
